The Ways of Sex Appeal
by ApriltheGreat
Summary: Ron isn't exactly sure how to confess his feelings to Hermione, but Fred and George seem to have a plan.
1. Coming to the Burrow

Hidden Moments

_Coming to the Burrow_

"Mum! Is Hermione here yet?'

"Ronald Weasely, if you ask me that one more time I swear…" Mum yells back up the stairs. I sigh. She's right. I had been nagging her, but it's not my fault. Hermione was supposed to be here a half an hour ago and now all I could think about was if something happened to her. If someone got to her…I try to shake the images from my mind, try to tell myself she's just late, that's all. It doesn't work.

"Mum!" I yell once more as I run down the stairs. This time I'm greeted with the mischievous faces of Fred and George.

"Poor git's worried about his girly friend." George smiles.

"Bugger off." I growl back at him.

"We're only trying to help." They both smile back at me. I raise an eyebrow; help never seemed to be in their vocabulary.

"What are you going on about?" I question. They move over to the kitchen door, flinging it open. I watch as they move outside and beckon for me.

"Come off it, what is this about?" George hands me a broom and then tugs at my shirt.

"Bloody hell. What has gotten into you?" Fred laughs.

"Rule number 1 of sex appeal, skin." George smiles back at me and pulls at my shirt yet again.

"And where did you learn about these rules?" I ask, pulling my shirt back down.

"A muggle book." I wasn't impressed.

"Muggles know nothing about how to please a witch." I say shortly. George and Fred laugh and jump onto their brooms flying off into the other direction. I look back at the horizon. Merlin, where was Hermione? I jump onto my broom and zoom off.

"Ron?" I blush deeply as I hear the familiar voice from below.

"Catch." Fred calls as he throws my now torn shirt across to George. They had decided, given that they hadn't gotten their point across. that playing a game of keep the shirt away from Ron would be much better. I can feel as my ears turn hotter and hotter. I look down at my bare chest then back to Hermione who's eyes are now very wide.

"Uh, hey!" I call while trying to frantically grab my shirt, but my efforts are pointless. George and Fred fly down to the ground and throw the shirt to a very confused Hermione. They both wink at her before disappearing into the house. I breath in a very long deep breathe as I try to calm myself. I could fly anywhere, just leave this behind, and maybe come back in a few hours after everything has cooled off. But then I catch Hermione's eyes. I watch as a deep blush overwhelms her. I fly back to the ground and awkwardly stand next to her, half naked. Hermione shifts slightly to one side holding my tattered T-shirt in her hand. But just as I'm about to speak mum rushes out and with one glance at me her mouth drops.

"Ron, where are your clothes?" She asks running over to me.

"Ask Fred and George." I grumble. Mum throws an apron at me.

"Here, put that on." She then realizes there's another person here.

"Oh Hermione dear. I'm sorry. Please come in. Come in." Hermione looks from mum back to me then blushes as she walks into the house my shirt still in her hand. I look down at the apron then back to the house. Fred and George are dead.

The house is becoming very lively as I walk back up to my room. Ginny giggles as I past by. And begins to laugh even louder as I try to cover myself with the apron. I notice Hermione staring from the living room. She tries to hide a smile that spreads across her face as I walk by.

"Bloody hell." I whisper under my breath and begin to run up the stairs. I look through my drawers of old clothes, pulling out shirt after shirt. Nothing looked right. I don't know exactly what I was looking for, just something that would please…Oh Merlin, not this again. Hermione. I can't get her out of my head. I'm such a git, there's no way in hell she could ever like someone like me. Giving up I lie down on the bed and shut my eyes. Before long there's a knock on the door.

"Fred, George. You wankers are going to get it! You and your stupid muggle book…" I trail off as I notice it's not Fred or George who's standing at my door. Blushing profusely I quickly try to grab a clean shirt off the ground.

"Erm, Hermione. Hi." Hermione smiles but I can see her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

"Hey, uh I just wanted to give you this." She lifts her hand where my t-shirt is resting.

"Thanks." I smile back at her taking it from her hand. "You know, I don't think I even need this, it's torn up anyway. I'll just throw it out…" Hermione hesitates before saying,

"I can do that... I mean throw it out for you." I don't get it. The trash bucket is a few feet away; it makes no sense why she's asking to do this. But I give in, wondering where this may go.

"Uh, alright. You want to come in?" I hand her the shirt as she walks into my room and sits down on the bed.

"Thanks." She throws it into a small bag she is clutching and leans back against the blankets. I walk aimlessly around the room; my cheeks still red. We are alone, I finally realize, I mean we've been alone before but not like this. Not with images running through my mind; bad images, more or less fantasy. Oh Merlin, I need to stop. I look at Hermione whose eyes are slightly closed, and fingers the bag. I move closer to her and rest on the bed.

"What were you talking about early? Something to do with a muggle book?" I jump at Hermione's words; they seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Erm…" I hesitated, trying to think of a lie. "Just something Fred and George thought would help…" I trail off. I'm such a stupid git. Would help? Help with what? I mentally strangle myself as I wait for Hermione to respond. She sits up and looks into my eyes before answering,

"Help with what?" I'm not exactly sure how to respond. Should I just tell her? I should. Just tell her how I feel about her and only her. But she'll think I'm a wanker, going off with Lavender and all…

"Oh Ronnie – Kins!" My face turns back to its now usual shade of red. Fred enters the door,

"Ooo, sorry. Wasn't interrupting anything was I?" He winks at me. Hermione quickly gets up from the bed, blushing deeply.

"Uh, no. I was just returning... his shirt." Hermione tried to hide her face from Fred who was grinning from ear to ear. All I could do was hold back from attacking him then and there. But I have to hand it to him; he did get me out of awkward situation.

"Bye Ron." I smile at Hermione as she leaves. "Bye." Then making sure I hear her door close I grab hold of Fred's arm and wrestle him to the ground.

"Skin. Skin? You stupid gits wouldn't know sex appeal if it hit you square in the wands."


	2. Night Time

The house was dark as I arose from my bed. Being careful not to wake anyone, I silently walk down the steps. Sleep is hard when all you can think about is a certain girl in a certain see-through dress, with some certain knickers that are more then tempting. I walk out of the door, shutting it quietly behind me. Grabbing my broom and fly into the night. The breeze feels good on my face and skin.

"Skin." I think to myself. "Stupid skin got me into this mess." I fly a little bit higher; cursing as I think about the stupidity of believing my brothers could ever help me. I blush slightly as I remember Hermione's face. Her face, I could reply that image forever and never get tired. But the thing was, why would she ever go for a bloke like me? I'm poorer than poor, I'm not the smartest wizard out there, and I've also ignored her for most of my life. That's not very tempting for, hell, any witch. I still can't believe I got with Lavender. I think the thought that went through her mind as she snogged me was more or less,

"I want to get in his pants." I shake my head. Wishing all these thoughts could just fall out of my head. I liked it better when I could like a girl from a far and never have to come into contact with them. Now it's all of this "sex appeal" and snogging and having to worry how you look all the time, or always being nervous about whether or not your "wand" will behave itself. Everything just becomes so complicated when hormones begin to control your life. I look across the sky; the sun is now beginning to rise. I should probably head back over to the house. Turning the broom around I fly swiftly back the way I came.

"Ron?" I turn around, trying to find the voice in the dark. Hermione moves closer to me.

"Hey. Why are you up?"

"I like watching the sun rise here. It's beautiful." She motions toward the window.

"Why are you up?" She questions me, smiling. I blush deeply and thank Merlin that it's dark enough not to be able to see my cheeks.

"Uh, couldn't sleep. Thought some flying could clear my head." Hermione sighed and sat back down. I pull up a chair and stare out the window, aimlessly waiting for something to happen. Hermione reaches for something, I can almost make it out, but when she pulls it up over her face I know instantly what it is.

"What book is that?" Hermione mumbles something quietly and doesn't look up. I try to look at the cover but it's to dark. I can barely make out any words, it's just fuzzy letters, and so I ask again.

"Sorry, couldn't hear you…" She looks up.

"Hidden Love. It's a muggle book." She says. What is with everyone and muggle books now? First Fred and George now Hermione? Has everyone gone mad!

"What's it about?" If I didn't know better I'd say Hermione was blushing. But why? Was this book like the one Fred and George had been talking about?

"It's, erm, a romance novel." She said quietly. Carefully flipping each page, she goes back to staring at her book. I try to crank my neck to see the back cover. I can only catch a few words.

"Alice, a lonely school girl only wishes for love…. But will James ever see her than more of a friend?..."

I look from Hermione back to the book. I had no idea she liked these kinds of books. It just didn't sound like Hermione, she usually just read old history books trying to learn as much as she could.

"What happened to your Hogwarts: A History, that you wanted to try and refresh up on?" I chuckle.

"I already finished it." She said not letting her eyes leave the page.

"Bloody hell, Hermione. I knew you read fast. But one day? That's all it took?" Hermione smiled at the compliment, laughing a bit before responding,

"It was only light reading. You know me." I smile. I do know Hermione. Very well actually. I think back to the earliest memories I have of her, when her hair was bigger than ever. But I think I can now say that she looked prettier with hair like that. It just shows what an incredible person she is. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I somehow started talking and my private thoughts began to pour out of nowhere, because I was positive I never opened my mouth. Hermione looks at me, her eyes big. I look right back at her, my cheeks redding deeper as the moments press on. I put my hand over my mouth, but it's closed. I have no idea where the noises are coming from. Hermione motions to my head.

"It's a thoughts spell. You need to stop thinking." She says. Stop thinking. Stop thinking. I think over and over. I soon begin to hear stop think , stop thinking. Hermione laughs and quickly pulls out her wand.

"Silencio thinkus." She murmurs. The voice stops immediately. I soon hear a single high five and the rushing of feet on the stairs. I catch a quick glimpse of short red hair hiding behind a door. I'm going to bloody kill 'em.

"Uh, well I need to go get changed, if everyone's getting up now." Hermione gets up from the table pushing the chair in and grabbing her book.

"Thanks, for undoing the spell I mean." I smile at her, also getting up from the table.

"Anytime." I watch as she walks up the stairs her nose right back into her book.


	3. The Forgotten Shirt

I walk slowly, breathing heavily as I round nearer to the corner where I dreaded. Fred and George waited anxiously by the door, holding what looked like was the all mighty book of sex appeal.

"Don't ask!" I say quickly as they thrust the book into my face, their mouths in place for argument. But I move swiftly opening a random door at the end of the hall, rushing in I don't even take in account of who's room this was. There's a small scream. Crap. I blush very deeply this time as I turn around to see the startled face of Hermione in only very short shorts that barely covered her bum and a very large shirt that looked familiar laying in her bed.

"Erm, Hermione?" Hermione pulled up her blankets close to her neck, her cheeks now also deepening in the common reddish color.

"Ron! Get out!" Ginny storms over to me, her ponytail flopping back and forth as she walked. She pushes me toward the door.

"Wait, please Gin! Just for a few minutes? Fred and George are..." I trail off and look around the room aimlessly. I could never tell Ginny, the taunting would never end, and I try to think of an excuse.

"Are…planting stink bombs in Harry's bed. They thought it would be hilarious. I just wanted to get out of the way of the smell." Ginny frowned in disgust.

"That's horrible. Why didn't you tell Harry?" She stormed off through the door without an answer. I'm left alone in the doorway. I look back and the bed where Hermione was supposes to be sleeping. Instead I see a heap of blankets.

"Hermione, you in there?" I joke, moving closer to the bed.

"Go away." She grumbles, pulling the blankets higher over his head.

"What's wrong?" I question. She doesn't answer. I sit at the edge of the bed. She still doesn't move. I start to tug at the blankets. When I get a little tug back, I pull a bit harder. A couple minutes later, three blankets are on the ground and I can now see the outline of the hidden Hermione underneath the last blanket.

"You know this is pointless." I chuckle.

"No, Ron come on. Knock it off. I just wanna sleep." She mumbles, but I can tell that she's happy. I move closer to her head and start to pull.

"Stop! Ron, stop!" Hermione jumps out of the bed grabbing helplessly for the blanket. I don't watch as I pull it away from her, when I finally do look up I'm taken back. Hermione was wearing my shirt. The shirt that I had given her to throw out. I look from her to the shirt then back to her. She looks like how I feel. Before I say anything she rushes out of the room and into the nearby bathroom shutting it behind her. I walk slowly out of the room and to Fred and George's now crowed room.

"Fred and George say that they didn't really plan on putting stink bombs in Harry's bed." Ginny says to me, I ignore her.

"Give it here." I say, thrusting my hand out. Fred chuckles as he hands over the book. Both Ginny and Harry watch me as I disappear into my room with the book in hand and a dragon that so obviously needed to be tamed.


End file.
